Smith's pride as County Londonderry create SuperCup NI history

County Londonderry 1

Tigres 0

Marty Smith has admitted that the pain of last year’s semi-final defeat was the motivating factor in leading his County Londonderry team to an historic SuperCup NI victory at the weekend.  

The team made history as they were crowned SuperCupNI champions for the first time in the county’s history, thanks to a 1-0 win over Tigres UANL from Mexico. A memorable campaign brought victories over both Glasgow Rangers and Manchester United, before Friday night’s battling victory over Tigres from Mexico.

Londonderry took the lead against Tigres in the first minute through Jacob Dallas and held onto that lead until the final whistle to right themselves in the history books.  

Smith couldn’t hold back his emotions after the game. 

“It’s a little bit hard to take in. I thought we played really well. I thought we were unlucky to only win 1-0. I know we missed a penalty and other opportunities in the game. I was waiting for the Mexican side to apply a bit more pressure, but the boys stood up to it and they were superb and I’m just absolutely delighted.

“It makes me immensely proud,” he said afterwards. “I’m proud of that group. I know how hard they have worked. There’s loads of ability there; we got them all organised, we got them fit and we tried to give them an extra 5-10% coming into the tournament and I think that showed, we showed our ability, we showed our fitness, we showed our togetherness to get us over the line.”

Smith made sure to highlight the efforts of not just the players, but their families throughout the week.

“I’m not just delighted for the players, I’m delighted for their parents and their families; they have followed them around, they have washed their kits, they have paid the money to get them here,” he stated. “The staff have been fantastic for me, and my own family, my wife and kids haven’t missed a match and it was great to have them here. It wasn’t just about us as a team, it’s about the whole group, the parents, families, friends, it’s fantastic. The final thing I said at half time was that they had someone in that stand that they could make so proud.”

Early goal

The crowd at Ballymena Showgrounds had barely got into their seat when Jacob Dallas broke the deadlock in utterly bizarre fashion. 

The centre-half received the ball and smashed it up field to clear, but Tigres’ keeper Luis Sanchez completely misjudged the bounce of the ball, leading to it flying over his head into the back of the net. 

The crowd at Ballymena were speechless, but it was the perfect start for Marty Smith’s Londonderry side.  The county side used this dream start to fuel a strong opening ten minutes where they looked dangerous every time they went forward. 

But Tigres then started to take hold of proceedings, going close with a Luis Mange free-kick but it was Londonderry who had the next chance through Alfie Gaston. 

The midfielder fired his acrobatic finish just over, after mesmerising stuff from captain Senan Devine to tee him up.  The county side took the single goal lead into the interval at Ballymena.  Like the first-half Londonderry started the better of the two sides and if it wasn’t for a great save by Luis Sanchez they would have doubled their lead. 

Gaston connected sweetly with a volley, but Sanchez dived to his right to tip it around the post.  Bobby Baird then had two headed opportunities from set-piece deliveries, but on both occasions, he headed over the bar.  Gustavo Gonzalez went close for the Mexican side in the 44th minute when he turned expertly to volley, but the shot went agonisingly wide of the post for the Mexican.  Londonderry were given a golden opportunity to double their lead in the 48th minute when Sam McClintock was brought down in the box, but the substitute couldn’t score the penalty he earned.  Sanchez in the Tigres net made up for his earlier error to save brilliantly low down to his right.  It didn’t prove to be costly for Londonderry as they saw the game out in a professional manner to be crowned champions.    

“It’s unbelievable,” Smith reflected. “It’s almost unnatural to ask players to work that hard over a five-day period but I think credit goes to the staff and myself, we got them as fit as we possibly could and we conditioned them for a tournament. Last year we got to the semi-final and we lost and I sat down and reflected on it and I felt we just ran out of legs so, if nothing else, I was determined this year that that wasn’t going to happen again.”

County Londonderry certainly went about this victory the hard way, beating some world-famous teams on the way.  

“It’s brilliant, but that’s the memory,” Smith emphasised. “The memories will be that we took on Glasgow Rangers and beat them, we too on Manchester United and we beat them and we took on a top Mexican side in the final and beat them. But that’s what the SuperCup is about; no disrespect, but you’re not coming to play against other Irish sides, you’re coming to play your Manchester Uniteds, your Rangers, top Mexican sides and that’s what it’s about.”

Trent captains Liverpool

Elsewhere, there was a proud moment for Derry’s Trent Kone-Doherty, who captained Liverpool against Hertha Berlin in the Elite Section.

Three goals after the interval secured the three points for the Germans as they finished second

 in the Elite Section behind Valencia with six points.  Liverpool had the better of the chances in the opening 35 minutes, with Wednesday night’s hero Jayden Danns rattling the post with a wonderful strike on the stroke of half-time. 

Hertha Berlin took the lead after the interval when Lukas Michelbrink, curled a shot home.  The Germans extended their lead when Nathan Morana spilled a corner straight to the feet of Jamie Sherwood to tap home. The German side added a third in injury time to pile on the misery for Liverpool.